Oxford Handbook of Human Action

by Morsella, Ezequiel; Bargh, John A.; Gollwitzer, Peter M.

• ISBN13: 9780195309980
• ISBN10: 0195309987
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-10-16
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

In the last decade, there has been a tremendous surge of research on the mechanisms of human action. This volume brings together this new knowledge in a single, concise source, covering most if not all of the basic questions regarding human action: What are the mechanisms by which actionplans are acquired (learned), mentally represented, activated, selected, and expressed? The chapters provide up-to-date summaries of the published research on this question, with an emphasis on underlying mechanisms. This 'bible' of action research brings together the current thinking of eminent researchers in the domains of motor control, behavioral and cognitive neuroscience, psycholinguistics, biology, as well as cognitive, developmental, social, and motivational psychology. It represents a determinedmultidisciplinary effort, spanning across various areas of science as well as national boundaries.

Author Biography

Ezequiel Morsella, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Social Cognitive Neuroscience at San Francisco State University and an Assistant Adjunct Professor in the Department of Neurology at the University of California, San Francisco.
He conducted his doctoral research at Columbia University and his postdoctoral training at Yale University. His theoretical and experimental research on the mechanisms of human action has appeared in journals such as Psychological Review and Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition

Table of Contents

The Mechanisms of Human action: Introduction and Background

Basic Principles, Systems, and Phenomena

Cognition and Action

The Inhibition of Unwanted Actions

The Visual Control of Object Manipulation

The Two Horses of Behavior: Reflection and Impulse

The Activation, Selection and Expression of Action

Smart Moves: The Psychology of Everyday Perceptual-Motor Acts

How the Mind Moves the Body - Lessons From Apraxia

Speech Errors and the Implicit Learning of Phonological Sequences

What Do We Prime? On Distinguishing Between Semantic Priming, Procedural Priming, and Goal Priming

Action and Mental Representation

The Prefrontal Cortex Stores Structured Event Complexes that are the Representational Basis for Cognitively-Derived Actions

Interactions Between Action and Visual Objects

The Movement of Eye and Hand as a Window Into Language and Cognition

Action Representation as the Bedrock of Social Cognition: A Developmental Neuroscience Perspective

Affect, Goals, and Motivation

Affect and Action Control

Action, Affect, and Two-Mode Models of Functioning

From Goal-Activation to Action: How Does Preference and Use of Knowledge Intervene?

The Role of Goal-Systems in Self-Regulation

The Origins and Sources of Action

Acquisition, Representation, and Control of Action

Flexibility in the Development of Action

The Role of Memory

Automaticity in situ: The Nature of Habit in Daily Life

Mimicry: Its Upiquity, Importance and Functionality

Control, Choice, and Volition

Free Willpower: A Limited Resource Theory of Volition, Choice, and Self-Regulation

Decision Utility, Incentive Salience, and Cue-Triggered 'Wanting'

On the Neural Implementation of Optimal Decisions

Non-Conscious Goal Pursuit and the Effortful Control of Behavior

Phenomenal and Metacognitive Components of Action

Elbow Grease: When Action Feels Like Work

Consciousness as a Trouble Shooting Device? The Role of Consciousness in Goal Pursuit

Living on the Edge: Shifting Between Nonconscious and Conscious Goal Pursuit

The Primary Function of Consciousness: Why Skeletal Muscles are 'Voluntary' Muscles

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